Yvette and Steven Ardern are the owners of this 20-acre property, purchased in July 2022 a place chosen for Steven to recover from a traumatic brain injury. The name Nunyara was chosen as it means restored to health, an opportunity we want to share with this beautiful property and our amazing wildlife.
Situated in the beautiful town of Tenterfield, the property with stunning views of Doctors Nose, is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary with long term plans to fully regenerate. This will be achieved by planting more trees, an abundance of flowering natives and restoring the highly impacted riparian zones of Doctors Nose Creek. Yvette and Steve hope to bring back all the species that frequent wetland areas, and provide homes for the koalas that once frequented the area.
In the future Steve and Yvette are hoping to share the sanctuary experience with others by establishing a camping spot.
The property is also home to a small area of threatened species with patches of Grey Box woodland which forms part of the White Box – Yellow Box – Blakely’s Red Gum Woodland and derived native grasslands endangered ecological. The property features broad-leaved stringybark (Eucalyptus caliginosa), yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora), Western New England blackbutt (Eucalyptus andrewsii), Blakely’s red gum (Eucalyptus blakelyi), Tenterfield woollybutt (Eucalyptus banksii), native blackthorn (Bursaria spinosa), snowy mint-bush (Prostanthera nivea), fringing wattle (Acacia frimbriata) Groundcover snow grass (Poa sieberiana), brown’s lovegrass (Eragrostis brownii), pitted bluegrass (Bothriochloa decipiens), native raspberry (Rubus parvifolius).
We have an abundance of wildlife. Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), wallaroos, red neck wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus). Reptiles we have seen to date include bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps), blue tongue lizard (Tiliqua scincoides), red belly black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) and red naped snake (Furina diadema). The bird life is abundant and includes kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), butcher birds (Cracticus sp.), king parrots (Alisterus scapularis), Eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius), crimson rosella (Platycercus elegan), galahs (Eolophus roseicapillus), magpies, currawong (Strepera graculina), noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), willy wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), fairy wren (Malurus sp.), crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) , black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) and we have the migratory birds like the oriental dollar bird (Eurystomus orientalis) and the pacific koel (Eudynamys orientalis).
